Cristina Odone is a journalist, novelist and broadcaster specialising in the relationship between society, families and faith. She is the director of communications for the Legatum institute and is a former editor of the Catholic Herald and deputy editor of the New Statesman. She is married and lives in west London with her husband, two stepsons and a daughter. Her new ebook No God Zone is now available on Kindle.

Child-free planes are just the beginning. Next, fat-free and female-only planes

I love children to bits, I really do, but I see the advantage of a child-free plane – or at least one in which children are banned from certain areas. I've sat on one too many flights where a screaming baby kept me from enjoying my book, or a smelly one kept me from enjoying my food.

So hurrah for Air Asia X, the Malaysian Airline that has introduced the "quiet zone" in their planes, where no child can go. After all, what's the point of earning money if it won't buy you a fuss-free life?

But why stop there? I may dislike being sat beside a bawling baby; but I much prefer that to sitting beside an obese man whose hips and thighs and other bits spill onto my seat. I can't bear their pained expression throughout the flight (they are so clearly uncomfortable in their seat). I can't bear the way the seatbelt won't fit around their monstrous girth, and they grow red, and start huffing and puffing at the strain of tugging the damn thing. Yes, I would definitely pay extra not to sit next to an obese passenger.